Friday, February 16, 2007

Patriotism and Your Church

Ordinary Time

Of course it's no news for a church in this country to encourage patriotism in its people as some kind of Christian virtue. I wonder - how many of you have ever been part of a church that did not actively encourage patriotism or actively discouraged folks from considering particular values (freedom, stuff like that) as American virtues that the Kingdom of God somehow shares?

To rephrase, many churches have maintained the Puritan sense of the United States being a "city on a hill," having a particular theological vocation in the world as a nation. Others have not, and their ministers might go out of their way to say that America is a nation like any other - some are good and some are bad, but they are still just nations.

I want anecdotes!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While not particularly related to your question, I stopped attending the (Southern Baptist) church that I grew up in when, during the 2000 election, I was given a flyer that said that George W. Bush better conforms to the values of our church and that they recommended that I vote for him.